The parable in today’s gospel
seems quite puzzling.
Is Jesus really telling us
to be as crooked and conniving as the steward
in the story he tells?

There must be something more to it than that.

 

The steward manages the master’s property.

The amounts are staggering.

When he talks about writing off 50 measures of oil,
he’s talking about between 400 and 450 gallons of olive oil.

When he talks about writing off ten kors of wheat,
he’s talking about over 100 bushels of wheat.

Even two thousand years ago,
that’s a good deal of money he’s talking about.

 

Was the steward trying to cover up his past crimes,
by changing what was owed from an overly inflated amount
to the amount that should have been owed in the first place?

Had the steward been inflating what was owed
so that the profits would be his
instead of his master’s?

 

We really don’t know.
What we do know is that the steward
was looking out for himself
rather than caring for the master’s property.
We do know that he was willing to cheat others
in order to take care of himself.

He was willing to do whatever was necessary
to avoid hard work or abject poverty.

What he wasn’t willing to do
was to do an honest day’s work
for an honest day’s salary.
He wasn’t willing to put the master’s needs
above his own.

 

The point of the story
isn’t that we should be dishonest
and look out only for ourselves,
but that we should be honest
and remember who the Master really is
and what the Master really expects of us.

 

God is the Master
who has given each of us responsibilities
over the care of God’s creation.
God expects us to live up to those responsibilities
with honesty and integrity,
always remembering that everything we have
belongs to the Master,
to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who created it all
and trusts us to care for it all
with the same care and concern God has for us.

 

Money isn’t everything.

It may be a necessary and important part of life,
but the way we use it or misuse it
shows the world where our values are.

We can’t serve God, our neighbor and God’s creation
and spend all our energy on the values of this world
- wealth, power and prestige.

We need to put as much effort into following the Lord
as the steward in today’s gospel
put into making sure he was taking care of himself.

 

Later in the gospel,
Jesus promises us a rich reward,
an eternal reward,
if we remember what’s really important.

 

We can’t serve both God and mammon,
but we can serve God
and care for all God has given us
to make this world more and more
like the Kingdom of God,
a place where all are fed and clothed and sheltered,
a place where all live in peace with justice,
a place where God is always the Master
and we are God’s honest and wise stewards.

 

May the Eucharist we share
nourish us so that we can be the people
we are called to be,
caring and sharing,
and being wise and honest stewards.